The disclosure relates to a fixing clip and a fixing structure (or apparatus) for fixing a member to be installed using the fixing clip. The member to be installed is, for example, a curtain airbag.
Japanese Patent Publication 2014-020409 discloses a conventional fixing clip. The conventional fixing clip includes a bushing and a lock pin. After a leg of the bushing is inserted through a clip fixing aperture of a body panel, the lock pin is inserted into a space provided between paired engagement hooks formed at opposed portions of the leg of the bushing whereby the engagement hooks are prevented from being deformed toward a center axis line of the fixing clip. According to the structure, when an excessively large load is loaded on the fixing clip from a curtain airbag at such a time when a curtain airbag (i.e., the member to be installed) is deployed and expanded, the fixing clip is prevented from being drawn-out from the body panel.
However, with the conventional fixing clip, there are the following problems to be addressed:
The lock pin is a member used for preventing the engagement hooks from being deformed toward the center axis line of the fixing clip when a drawing-out load is loaded on the fixing clip from the member to be installed and the engagement hooks are pushed by the body panel. Therefore, the lock pin is not designed so as to be able to share the drawing-out load loaded on the fixing clip from the body panel. As a result, when the drawing-out load is loaded on the fixing clip from the member to be installed, an entirety of the drawing-out load is received by the engagement hooks, and is transmitted from the engagement hooks to the leg of the bushing, then is further transmitted through the leg of the bushing, and is finally received by the head of the bushing. If the load loaded on the leg exceeds an endurability of the leg, the leg will be broken at a connecting portion of the leg to the head and, as a result, the member to be installed will be disconnected and removed from the body panel. If a cross-sectional area of the leg is increased in order to prevent the leg from being broken at the connecting portion to the head, it will be difficult to cause the leg to pass through the clip fixing aperture. Therefore, there will be some limit in increasing the cross-sectional area of the leg from the viewpoint of fixing and removing the fixing clip to the body panel.